Wild Hearts (3 page)

“I wasn’t about to let her simmer with your taste on her mouth. Can’t have that,” Jacy said. He winked behind the dark lens of his sunglasses, knowing Coal caught his antic. “It’s about time the roles are reversed. Me first.”

“Whatever. You know damned well I don’t get first dibs half the time. Get in the car and shut up, got it?” Coal chuckled as he slid behind the wheel.

Jacy laughed as he rounded the back of the car and settled in the passenger seat. He shot Shyla a smile.

“You cozy back there or you need some company?”

“I’m just fine, thank you,” she replied, sidestepping his gaze for the scenery outside the window. “Where’re we going today?”

“You hungry?” he asked.

“I think it would be a great idea to fill my belly with good food before you deliver whatever you’ll deliver to me.” She rummaged through her purse, pulled out a pair of sunglasses, and slipped them on her nose. “I’m hoping you’ll let me see the town a bit.”

“I think we can do that, right, Coal?”

“I can think of some very scenic things to do.”

Chapter Three

Shyla rode the waves of pure heaven as she meandered down the sidewalk, stopping to glance in store windows every few feet. This town of Hood River might be rustic and simple, but the breeze blew crisp and clean, the sunshine spread wings that made the cold manageable, and everywhere she turned resonated in quaintness. As where New York might be densely populated and bustling all day long with little elbow room, this place enveloped her in a cozy welcome regardless how few and far between strollers might be.

She didn’t want to think about the time when she’d have to leave.

Hell, she even made peace with the spiders, especially gazing upon their shimmering webs tinged with melting morning frost. They tucked away in practically each window corner, lying in wait for a meal.

Most of all, she didn’t want to leave the two men who followed close behind her. They said little as she drank in the small town, but she never once felt their eyes leave her back. They observed her as close as humanly possible. The heat of their gazes kept her body on moderate alert, suspended in a limbo of desires and curiosities. Having been unsuccessful in the dating world back home, this imminent attention stoked craving in her libido she’d never considered before.

Shyla cupped the side of her face and peered into another window blankly. Coal stepped up to her left, the heat of his body and the weight of his strength conforming around her. He embraced her without laying a single finger on her. Instinctively, she licked her lips. His kiss lingered from almost an hour ago, the masculine flavor of his mouth bringing a bout of warmth to her core. Jacy’s kiss remained imprinted in her memory as well, and when his fingers curled in her hair, she nearly dropped out of emotional overload.

Jacy guided her into his solid chest. She looked up at Coal. His lips tightened as his hidden eyes caressed her. Shyla could detect the subtle tension flowing between the men, but their camaraderie always outweighed whatever underlying issues they might have.

In the course of an hour, that much she understood.

Everything else, well, there was way too much going on for her to decipher, starting with her own body.

“You must like the town thus far. We haven’t made it to breakfast yet,” Jacy said against her ear.

His breath stirred those pleasurable chills that spiraled downward until they pooled in her womb. Couldn’t she make it more than ten minutes around these guys without wanting to strip naked and deliver herself into their care?

She barely knew them, and yet, she felt as if she’d known them all her life.

Shyla rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms, trying to clear her mind of the muddled thoughts. Jacy was right. She needed to eat.

“This place welcomes me. Sounds funny, huh?” Shyla murmured, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Jacy caught the tip of her finger between his teeth, his tongue flicking the pad. Forcing aside the alluring idea of forgetting the day and tucking herself in Gramps’s cabin with these two, she cleared her throat and stepped away from Jacy. “I think we should do breakfast before lunchtime rolls around.” She lifted her hand for Coal. A dark grin stretched over his mouth, and he slipped his fingers between hers. Not exactly what she went for, but hell it worked. “What’re you grinning about?”

“I warned you last night to censor your thoughts. You might just end up back at the cabin far earlier than expected,” Coal teased. Shyla’s heels anchored to the sidewalk after her first step ahead. Jacy walked into her, and Coal chuckled. “You still don’t believe me, huh?”

“You’re telling me you can read my thoughts. How’s that possible?” Shyla inquired, narrowing her eyes on Coal.

“Like this, sweetheart.”

She gasped at the voice invading her mind. Coal’s voice, nonetheless, and he didn’t even move his lips!

Coal led her next to him, gracing her forehead with a light kiss.

“Let’s get you out of the cold. You’re shivering.”

Shyla’s molten hot blood couldn’t register the wintry mountain air that managed to chill her until Coal mentioned it. She constricted the wool shawl around her shoulders and leaned into the inviting heat emanating from Coal’s body. Jacy didn’t miss a step in coming up on her other side and completing an unseen circuit between the three of them. Summertime heat poured through her, back and forth from man to man.

“I’ll say it out loud since you’ll hear it anyhow, but I would’ve never believed to be standing here, between two of…
you
,
and not wondering about my sanity,” Shyla said. Both men looked down at her, one with a smile and one with an arched brow, eyeing her like succulent candy.

Silence ensued, wreaking havoc with her waking body as they led her around the corner of an old brick building. A passing couple gave them wide berth as they passed. Jacy snickered, tossing a glance over his shoulder. Shyla followed his gaze and caught the uncertain look the couple cast in their direction.

“You two have a rep I should know about?” Shyla asked. Coal’s fingers tightened around hers as he paused outside a diner.

“There are two different kinds of people in Hood River, darling. Those who reside and those who own. We’re part of the latter,” Jacy said.

“And I suppose there’s a subgroup of the latter that includes cockiness.”

Coal laughed, pushing open the glass door, the little brass bell chiming their arrival. The smell of grease, bacon, and breads came at her on a wave of warm air, smacking her in the face. Her stomach rumbled and her mouth salivated with the prospect of eating. When was the last time she ate? Before she left the airport back home? Had it really been over a day?

“Hey, Len,” Coal called.

Shyla did a quick scan of the small eatery, ending on a tall, white-haired man standing behind the counter on the opposite side of the building. The man smiled and waved, finishing with a paying customer. He wiped his hands on a soiled apron and rounded the counter, approaching them with long, sure strides.

Shyla couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. Several pairs of eyes came to rest on her, observing, peeling away layers of curiosity with their gazes. A feral air hovered. The patrons in this place were far different than patrons in the city. The shadow of her spirit whispered it to her. She stood amid a crowd of eerily silent, probing guests. Glancing around, she crashed with gaze after gaze, reading astonishment and awe from each person. She stole the spotlight, and she held every person’s attention, some with food halfway to their mouths, some stirring drinks mindlessly.

All who sized her up did so in a primal manner.

She clamped shut the whispering of her spirit and tried to brush off the unusual circumstances of the diner. She hadn’t realized she pressed herself into the protective wall of Coal’s body until his fingers left hers and his arm draped over her shoulders. Jacy sidled closer, his own sturdy form blocking a good chunk of her from prying eyes. She was thankful to both men at that moment.

Len stepped up to them, his blue eyes lowering to her. She managed a small smile, pushing aside her discomfort in the presence of a group of fawning strangers.

“Ah, you’re Jacob’s long-lost kin. I can clearly see him in you. Shyla, right?” Len asked, holding out a hand. She accepted the welcoming handshake and then rested her head on Coal’s chest. A glint passed through the older man’s eyes. His nostrils flared, and his smile faltered. “A white?”

“We haven’t gotten that far with her yet,” Jacy said, though his voice deepened, and his simple remark came out on a wave of warning. He lifted his sunglasses from his face, folded them, and slid them into his jacket pocket.

Shyla couldn’t withhold a small gasp. Jacy smirked. The greenest eyes she’d ever seen glittered at her, indulging in the playful nature she had come to know in Jacy. His eyes resembled what glowing green grass with flecks of gold from sunbeams might look like. They were gorgeous eyes that prowled over her in one slow, tantalizing journey that came to linger on her breasts. She blushed beneath his drinking gaze, her breasts filling and becoming heavy beneath the wool shawl. Moisture seeped from her core, and she shifted, trying her damnedest to make the growing itch subside.

The smile grew on Jacy’s kissable mouth, as if to say,
I know you’re wet and wanting me. Sugar, I’ll give you what you want.

Jacy dipped his head, and his lips brushed her ear. “Nope. I really said it.”

“You said…that? Oh, how crass!” Shyla snapped, taking a deep breath. The calming scent of spice and clean outdoors filled her spirit, but she still managed to swat aside the sexually laden euphoria crushing down on her. She wasted enough time pining over intimate fantasies involving these two…gods. She was the missing sweet cream from the cookie, now sandwiched between dark and light halves. Together, they might make a delectable treat.

She rolled her eyes and groaned.
Head outta the gutter, Shyla. You have a week to get your grandfather’s estate in order. One week until you’ll never see these guys again.

“You okay?” Coal asked.

Shyla snorted, pressing herself from his chest and forcing a space of a foot between the charged Jacy and herself.

“Fine. Why don’t we sit and eat, hmm?” She pulled out a chair from the closest table and plopped down, avoiding the curious onlookers. Coal exchanged a tight look with Jacy before they sat on either side of her. Len grabbed some menus and placed them on the table.

“Coffee, dear? Juice?” he asked. His kind smile returned, lacking any prior uncertainty.

His comment about a white something still toyed in the back of her mind. She nodded, trying another shot at being cordial. “Coffee, thanks.”

“Boys?”

“Good, thanks,” Coal said. Jacy nodded, sliding a menu in front of her. He lounged back, kicking one booted foot onto the seat across from him. Coal leaned forward, his hands folded over the table. Shyla reached for his sunglasses. She pulled them from his face and placed them on the tabletop. Fathomless black eyes gauged her, observing her more like a human than an animal. She couldn’t say as much about Jacy, even if his outright crude remark did make her hot.

Jacy and Coal where two magnificent creations of God sitting with her. They were good-spirited men, that much she surmised, two opposites that filled gaps in her whole.

“Why does it look like some of the patrons are sniffing the air?” Shyla asked.

“Eh, they’re jealous. They’ll get over it,” Jacy assured. “I don’t like ’em lookin’ at you like that.” Jacy motioned to a man at a far table. “Conroy, your jaw’s shattered to pieces on the floor. Put it back together, will ya?”

“Why do their actions concern you? Why do
I
concern you?”

“Welcome to Hood River. The wilderness gets to us,” Jacy said. He tapped his heel on the wooden floor and chuckled. “Not everyone is like us. What did Jacob tell you about your family?”

“Nothing much,” Shyla lied. Oh, he told her plenty after she confided to him about the adoption papers. He told her more than she was willing to believe, but he always made things sound so real. All of his letters told about spirits and wolves and the merging of two into one.

In one particular letter, he explained a Blood Moon Legacy and the extermination of the white wolves. White wolves were revered as living spiritual guides and pack leaders. As not to anger the spirits, packs obeyed the white wolf of their territory, laying trust and love in the creature. Over twenty years ago, a horrifying massacre took place. The living white wolves were slain on the night of a full moon. That same night, the white moon turned red with their shed blood.

The white wolf was believed to be extinct.

Shyla looked over at Coal. Damn, she must’ve drifted off in thought. Both men trained narrowed eyes on her.

“Nothing, eh?” Jacy inquired. “Did he tell you about your mother?”

“My mother died shortly after I was born,” Shyla confided. She knew the Native American stories from Gramps, but he never told her anything about her parents aside from her mother’s unfortunate death and her father’s murder. She twisted the end of her scarf and sighed. “Gramps never mentioned her otherwise. I know nothing about my biological parents.”

“Did Jacob tell you anything about
his
mother?” Coal asked.

Shyla shook her head.

“What about himself?”

“You most likely know more about him than I do. You know about the letter-per-year rule.” Shyla propped her head on her hand, leaning over the table. She focused on the dark beauty sitting to her right. His complexion held a touch of bronze she associated with a splash of Native American heritage. Christ, it looked good on him. His choice of black attire, from leather jacket to shirt to boots, made her mouth salivate, as well as other parts of her body moist. “Tell me about him.”

“Your grandfather was a wonderful man. It’s unfortunate you never had the opportunity to spend time with him, but your life is worth far more than the estrangement between your kin,” Coal said. His deep voice softened. He lifted a hand to her cheek and caressed aside stray strands of hair. “Your mother was murdered the morning of your birth. You were cut from her womb and immediately taken into hiding. Your adoptive parents had been arranged on a moment’s notice. If I recall correctly, your adoptive father was a distant relative of your grandfather. That’s how he’s kept in touch without raising suspicion.”